


Adora can’t read

by demigold



Category: She-Ra and the Princesses of Power (2018)
Genre: Adora is Illiterate, Crack Treated Seriously, Fluff and Crack, Gen, i don’t know man
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-04
Updated: 2019-01-04
Packaged: 2019-10-04 01:38:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 957
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17295221
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/demigold/pseuds/demigold
Summary: Living with the Horde may have meant Adora didn’t learn how to use a knife, but nobody thought it meant she never learned how to read.





	Adora can’t read

Adora loved stories. She loved hearing the tales of brave warriors and their companions. She enjoyed listening to their epic quests. Perhaps her favorite among the myths and romances and fantasies to pick from were the ones of gunslinging space pirates.

She thought they were so cool. Free from all authority, absolutely unbound. Their road ahead was filled with endless opportunities.

Her fascination with fictional tales began one off day with Glimmer. The two of them were relaxing in the princess’s room.

In the lull of their conversation Adora, ever restless, stood up and began to pace. She went over her path so many times Glimmer thought she would burn straight through the floor.

So she rolled over, pushed herself onto her feet, and pulled a random book out of her bookshelf.

She opened it to the first page and asked, “Adora, do you want to hear a story?”

The blonde’s head whipped around and she immediately rushed to sit next to the purple clothed princess.

”I would love to, Glimmer!”

Even though, in the moment, Adora knew absolutely nothing about what a story was, she was still eager to hear one. If it was coming from her friend it was bound to be good.

 

* * *

 

 

Mermista and Adora were doing just great. Nothing had gone wrong with their mission. They had everything under control.

A couple bullets flew toward Adora and she barely managed to block them with her sword. Stupid Horde soldiers.

Okay so maybe they were a little overwhelmed, but it was nothing to worry over. There were just a few more soldiers than the duo expected.

The pair had been sent to a recently captured village in order to free it. Judging from reports (which Mermista left for Adora to read) the forces of Bright Moon said there weren’t many soldiers left.

That had come off a little fishy and left the question of why request backup, but when Queen Angella asked you to do something, you did it. Mermista could respect the winged lady even if she herself was the princess of a completely different kingdom.

”She-Ra, duck!” Mermista warned right before she sent a sweep of water behind the fearsome blonde.

The Horde soldiers hit fell flat on the ground. With one more tug Mermista sent them toppling into the river. Let them deal with its depths and rocks.

”Thanks!”

”Whatever,” the princess grumbled as she went back to dealing with the last few troops.

After the two finished and managed to leave the grateful villagers, Mermista turned to her companion.

”That wasn’t ‘a few soldiers’.”

”When we get back you can check the report. It said ‘a few left’.”

Mermista grumbled and under her breath mentioned how Adora could be a little more thourough before running guns all into a fight. If the girl heard, she didn’t say anything.

When the two made it back to Bright Moon, Mermista took it upon herself and went to look at the report.

She flipped the file open and read through the description until she found the part she needed.

”... _we’re_ _low_ _on_ _troops_ _and_ _have_ _few_ _supplies_ _left_. _Too_ _many_   _Horde_   _soldiers_...”

Huh. Adora was probably impatient and skimmed through. From the little time they spent around each other, Mermista knew how eager for action the girl could be.

 

* * *

 

“Hey Bow,” Adora yelled as she ran up to her friend, waving a flyer in his face, “what does this say?”

”It’s a help wanted fl– can you not read that?”

Bow knew there were a lot of basic things Adora never learned due to her time with the Horde, but reading? Maybe it was even more of a shock than the knife debocle because Bow had seen Adora read the First Ones gibberish.

“No?” Adora’s brows furrowed. “Why would you put out a paper when you could ask around,” she said, baffled as though the concept was madness. She slapped the paper with her hand. “It doesn’t make sense. Back at the Horde we just found someone to tell the message.”

”But that’s inefficient! What if you don’t know who all needs a job? Then how are you going to find the right person you need,” Bow stressed.

”Record an audio broadcast,” the blonde answered like it was as obvious as the sun.

Somebody was going to have to teach her to read. If she didn’t know how to read, then she didn’t know how to write.

Bow grabbed his friend’s shoulders and held her in place. “Adora, you don’t know how to read or write, do you?”

“If you can write something down then you run the risk of an enemy finding it. That’s what Shadow Weaver always told us.”

He removed his hands and raked one down his face.

In a weird way, it made sense. Of course Shadow Weaver would say that. Yet, only the Princess Alliance broke into the Fright Zone and that was one time.

Oh, Bow realized, if you can’t read then how will you learn anything other than what you’re told. Maybe the Horde was smarter than he gave them credit for. Maybe they purposefully kept their soldiers illiterate to make sure the only information they got was straight from them.

He turned around to look for Adora and then the knife incident flashed up. Or maybe Adora was just an idiot. That was also possible.

Bow walked over and grabbed his friend’s hand. As they made their way back to the castle, he explained himself.

”I’m going to tell Glimmer or Queen Angella. They’ll find someone to teach you to read and write. If you’re going to be She-Ra or part of the Princess Alliance then you’ll need to be able to interpret written reports.”


End file.
